Strap Attachment

Down Up Dick

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Has anyone tried drilling holes through the uke's Headpiece for attaching the top end of a strap? The holes could be very small, and the cord would be down and out of the way. If it wouldn't harm the Uke, it would be better than tying it around the Headpiece where it's in the way. It's just an idea I had, and I wondered if anyone had tried it.
 
I haven't drilled the headpiece on any of my instruments.

My banjolele came with a little metal bracket screwed to the side of the headpiece for the attachment of a cord/strap.

On my "conventional" instruments I pass the cord behind (above) the lower pair of tuners, not behind the nut where it does get in the way. I thought initially this might risk causing the instrument to go out of tune, but it's caused no problem so far. Having said that, I usually play sitting down. If I was prancing about and waving the instrument around, it might not be such an optimal solution, but it's easy enough to try before submitting your instrument to the loving attention of a drill.

I'd have reservations about drilling the headpiece because if one got it wrong, possibly ending up with the strap fouling a tuner, you'd be no better off, except for a marginally lighter ukulele ;)
 
I put my strap button on the bottom of the heel of the neck. The heel is the thick part that attaches to the body. The strap is completely out of the way.
 
I saw a uke for sale where someone had screwed in a small eye hook in the back I'd the headstock for the same purpose. You would need to drill a pilot hole to minimize the chances of splitting the wood. A little less invasive than a hole all the way through. If you have geared tuners you could make a small thin bracket with a hole in it for the cord and attach it to a tuner screw with another smaller hole at the other end, might have to get a longer screw. Just a thought.
 
This doesn't sound like radical idea when you see how this was done on a parlor guitar in 1896.
{close up shows how much I need to clean & polish it)
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Hi, kissing, I have two buttons on my baritone, and they work well, but the strap seems kind of confining. Tying the strap around the nut is less so, but then the tie cord gets in the way of one's fretting hand. I was just trying to think of a better way. Maybe I have too much time on my hands; maybe I oughta practice more or change my strings or somethin'.
 
I'm confused! Everyone so far has been talking about strap attachment at the headstock (is that what people mean by "headpiece'??) end BUT no one has mentioned strap attachment at the lower body end. In my brief time with Ukulele, I have never seen a strap button on the body end of a uke. And I'd hate to drill a hole for an endpin in my 40s Martin soprano [Yikes!!] and drilling a hole in my Tenor Fluke would mean I couldn't stand it up anymore!

So IMHO, attaching a strap at the tuner end is a no brainers compared with attaching a strap at the body end. Am I missing something??
 
I've added strap buttons to the tail end of all my ukes, not a bit of a concern drilling into them. Many manufacturers do it, why shouldn't I.
 
I love mine attached to the pickup and the underside of the heel.
 
I'm confused! Everyone so far has been talking about strap attachment at the headstock (is that what people mean by "headpiece'??) end BUT no one has mentioned strap attachment at the lower body end. In my brief time with Ukulele, I have never seen a strap button on the body end of a uke. And I'd hate to drill a hole for an endpin in my 40s Martin soprano [Yikes!!] and drilling a hole in my Tenor Fluke would mean I couldn't stand it up anymore!

So IMHO, attaching a strap at the tuner end is a no brainers compared with attaching a strap at the body end. Am I missing something??
Flukes don't have a wood block in the bottom, so people use alternate methods, none of which do I remember. I agree, though, that you don't want to mess up the flat bottom.
I wouldn't drill the bottom of the Martin either, but not because it's a Martin, but because it's a tiny soprano. If you worry about dropping it, a uke leash or Möbius might work fine. Or a chair.
... and " headstock" is probably what I have heard most for the uh, you know, tuner end.
 
I think both of Ukuleleblues ideas are very good. I can't show them here because I don't know how to "reply with quote". Anyway, he suggest screwing a small eye hook into the rear of the headpiece. That maybe better than a hole all the way through. He also suggested a thin piece of metal to one (or two) of the tuners. Both ideas sound doable to me

And now SailQuest suggests a mandolin strap, but I can't see how it fastens to the Uke's nut area. I will say it's a snazzy lookin' strap though. Is it just a loop around the nut? Won't it slip around?
 
Just click on the "reply with quote" button. If you just want to quote some part of the whole post, cut and paste that part. Use [ ] these brackets. Inside the bracket in front of your chosen quote type in the word quote. At the end of the quote use /quote in between the brackets. I hope I made that clear enough to understand.
 
Another shot, with the loop loosened.

The loop slides under the strings, and around the back of the neck. Strap slides through the loop, then you attach the other strap end to the end pin.

The loop is pretty snug and sliding isn't much of an issue.

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Pretty snazzy, SailQwest, thanks. I guess one could tie any strap that way. I think I'll give it a try maybe with my Banjolele.

Icelander53, I'll give your info a try too and see if I can figure it out.
 
Cant think who the uker is but i saw one of his vids showing a piece of velcro glued on the back of the uke and another piece of velcro stuck in place on one of those name tag neckstraps people use at conferences etc.no damage to the uke and can be used on your other ukes as well
 
This was my final solution to having a strap on a Flea. The strap itself is a 1/8" leather shoelace. One might pad it around the neck, but I don't find an unpadded shoelace a problem. Flea sits by my computer all the time, resting on the flat bottom

flea strap feature.jpg
 
Cant think who the uker is but i saw one of his vids showing a piece of velcro glued on the back of the uke and another piece of velcro stuck in place on one of those name tag neckstraps people use at conferences etc.no damage to the uke and can be used on your other ukes as well

Jake Shimabukuro does that.

I have several of these, which I wrap around the headstock. There's a felt button that attaches to the strap.

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I'm confused! Everyone so far has been talking about strap attachment at the headstock (is that what people mean by "headpiece'??) end BUT no one has mentioned strap attachment at the lower body end. In my brief time with Ukulele, I have never seen a strap button on the body end of a uke.....

Strap buttons on the bottoms of ukuleles are not uncommon. There's a big wood block on the inside of the bottom, where the sides meet, and that holds the screw for a strap button really well. Most of my ukuleles have strap buttons, and many builders, like Mya-Moe, add them routinely.

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